Dr Alex Dodoo, re-elected President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH), on Tuesday expressed the need for every pharmacy to have a pharmacist at post to dispense healing.
"I want to see every pharmacy that is opened having a pharmacist on duty. A pharmacist who is well equipped with the knowledge and skills to dispense healing, advice and the best medicines ever, so that the people of Ghana will enjoy better health," he stressed.
Dr Dodoo was giving his maiden address as President of the PSGH for a second term in office, after he and seven others were inducted into office at the newly built office complex of the society at Baatsona in Accra that would also serve as a knowledge factory for pharmacists.
"I expect to work with the Pharmacy Council to ensure that no pharmacy operates without a pharmacist and that any one operating a pharmacy business without registering with the Pharmacy Council is brought to book with the stiffest penalties applied," he said.
The President said in the next two years he envisaged a PSGH that would not "be cowed, subdued or harassed by anyone".
"But we (PSGH) can only be assertive, confident and bold if we do the right things," he explained.
Dr Dodoo said his administration would work with the Pharmacy Council and the National Health Insurance Authority to do the things that were required to ensure that the pharmacy business became profitable once again.
He noted that a lot of people assume that pharmacists are making a lot of money, "when in fact our businesses are struggling due to low tariffs, high operating costs and other factors that are best discussed with the relevant national and international bodies and agencies".
Dr Dodoo asked the authorities not to stifle the initiative of the youth but to offer them the leadership roles they occupied during their prime years.
He observed that the tendency to look down upon the youth stifle ideas, ideals, dreams and vision, and destructive to any country.
"Where will the Barak Obamas and David Camerons of this world be if the elderly in their countries had not aged gracefully and handed over the baton of leadership, power and responsibility to a new, younger and more energetic generation?"
Dr Dodoo said progress, opportunities and welfare were his vision for the next two years and asked pharmacists to be each others keeper.
"Let our love be genuine. Let us hate that which is evil and hold fast to what is good. Let us love one another with brotherly and sisterly affection. Let us outdo one another in showing honour," he said.
Acknowledging the challenges of the 75-year-old pharmacist body, Dr Dodoo called for a society where empathy rules over profit and where love for one another will drive away envy, dissentions, pettiness and all other negative traits.